What's New

This release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.

Earlier Releases of VMware vSphere 4

Features and known issues from earlier releases of vSphere 4.0, are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for prior releases of vSphere 4 components, click the following links:

Installation and Upgrade

After successful installation, several configuration steps are essential. In particular, some licensing, networking, and security configuration is necessary. Refer to the following guides in the vSphere documentation for guidance on these configuration tasks.

Future releases of VMware vSphere might not support VMFS version 2 (VMFS2). VMware recommends upgrading or migrating to VMFS version 3 or higher. See the vSphere Upgrade Guide.

Future releases of VMware vCenter Server might not support installation on 32-bit Windows operating systems. VMware recommends installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit Windows operating system. If you have VirtualCenter 2.x installed, see the vSphere Upgrade Guide for instructions on installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit operating system and preserving your VirtualCenter database.

Upgrading or Migrating to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4

Note: You can also upgrade from vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4 to vCenter Server 4.1 Update 1 and later, but not to vCenter Server 4.1.

Upgrading vSphere Client

After you upgrade vCenter Server or the ESX/ESXi host to vSphere 4.0 Update 4, you are prompted to upgrade the vSphere Client to vSphere Client 4.0 Update 4. The vSphere Client upgrade is mandatory. You must use only the upgraded vSphere Client to access vSphere 4.0 Update 4.Note: You must use vSphere Client 4.0 Update 4 to access vCenter Servers that are part of a linked mode group with at least one vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4 instance.

Plug-Ins Updates

Documentation

The VMware vSphere 4.0 Update 1 documentation has been updated and is applicable for all update releases of vSphere 4.0, including VMware vSphere 4.0 Update 1, Update 2, Update 3, and Update 4. See the following documentation pages:

Internationalization

VMware vSphere 4.0 Update 4 is available in the following languages:

English

German

Japanese

Simplified Chinese

vSphere Client Locale Forcing Mode

With vSphere 4.0 Update 4, you can configure the vSphere Client to provide the interface text in English even when the operating system on which it is running is non-English. This configuration can be done for the duration of a single session by supplying a command-line switch. This configuration applies to the interface text and will not affect other locale-related settings such as date/time or numeric formatting.

The following vSphere Client command will cause the individual session to appear in English:vpxClient -locale en_US

vCenter Server Upgrades

You can upgrade VirtualCenter Server 2.5 Update 6, vCenter Server 4.0, vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1, vCenter Server 4.0 Update 2, and vCenter Server 4.0 Update 3 to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4. To upgrade, first confirm that your database is supported with vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4, back up your supported database, SSL certificates, and VirtualCenter Server configuration. Then run the vCenter Server installer. The installer informs you that an earlier version of vCenter Server is on the computer and will be upgraded.

Open Source Components for vSphere

Open source components and their respective licenses for the most recent generally available release of vSphere is available at http://www.vmware.com/download/vsphere/open_source.html, under the Open Source tab. You can also download the source files for any GPL and/or LGPL, or other similar licenses that require the source code or modifications to source code to be made available, for the most recent generally available release of vSphere, by clicking on the link noted above.

Resolved Issues

Miscellaneous

Enabling VMware HA and lockdown mode on ESXi hosts results in excessive messages in logs file and no-permission messages on the Event tab of vSphere Client
If you enable VMware HA and lockdown mode on an ESXi host, excessive messages similar to the following are logged in the /var/log/messages file:Cannot login user @127.0.0.1: no permission

Repeated messages similar to the following are logged in the hostd log file:Throw vim.fault.NoPermission

Known Issues

Functionality Caveats

vSphere Web Access is no longer being developed. Support for this product is provided on a best effort basis. You should use the vSphere Client, which contains all the functionality of Web Access.

Character Input Limitations

All fields in the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Access interface support non-ASCII character input, except for the limitations listed below.

Non-ASCII Character Entry Limitations:

The name of the computer on which vSphere 4.0 Update 4 components are installed must not contain non-ASCII characters.

The name of the computer or virtual machine where vCenter Server is installed must not have a non-ASCII computer name or the installation of vCenter Server will fail.

Use the default installation path names specified in the installer for all the components. Do not change the install path, because the installer does not support installation path names containing non-ASCII characters and extended-ASCII characters.

Guest operating system customizations using ASCII encoding are supported, but customizations using UTF-8 encoded native characters of Japanese, Chinese, or German have limited support. For customizations with non-ASCII owner, organization, user name, or password, vCenter Server, and the sysprep tool must be hosted in the same locale as that of the guest operating system. This limitation includes UTF-8 encoded answer files.

Non-ASCII Character Display Limitations:

When managing a vCenter Server with the vSphere Client running on different languages of Windows, some characters might be displayed incorrectly because of the difference in language-specific support on Windows.

If an error message includes log locations or user names containing non-ASCII characters, it is not displayed correctly in the localized environment.

USB Pass-Through for Virtual Machines

Although you can add USB controllers to virtual machines, attaching USB devices is not supported.

List of Known Issues

The following issues are known to occur. The list of issues below pertains to vCenter Server 4.0, vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1, vCenter Server 4.0 Update 2, vCenter Server 4.0 Update 3, and to this release. Known issues not previously documented are marked with the * symbol.

Installation

vCenter Server installation or upgrade fails if the database user name or password contains a semicolon
Installation or upgrade of vCenter Server might fail with an error message similar to the following, if the database user name or password that you provide contains a semicolon:

Workaround: Do not use a semicolon in user names, passwords, and file paths.

vCenter Server Service fails to start if vCenter Server is installed with custom ports and remote DB2database
After you install vCenter Server using custom ports and remote DB2 database, vCenter Service might fail to start.

vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 and later fails to prompt for upgrade to vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Client in a multi-vCenter Server environment
In a multi-vCenter Server environment where vCenter Server 4.0 and vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 coexist, if you use vSphere Client to access a vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 instance, you might not be prompted for upgrade to vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Client.

Workaround: Make sure you use vSphere Client 4.0 Update 1 in a multi-vCenter environment. The vSphere Client installer is available in the vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 installation folder. You can download it from http://hostname_of_vCenter_Server/client/VMware-viclient.exe.

Extraneous SQL Express database error message while uninstalling vCenter Server
While uninstalling vCenter Server on a system which has SQL Server installed, you might see an error message similar to the following:

Error 25061.Setup failed to remove the DSN used to access the local vCenter Server SQL Express database.

This error message can be ignored. Click OK in the dialog box to continue the uninstall process.

Agent Pre-upgrade check utility fails to run
If you try to run the Agent Pre-upgrade check utility from autorun.exe, you might get an error message similar to the following:

The application failed to initialize properly(0x0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application.

Workaround: Install .NET 2.0 or higher.

Cannot log in to VirtualCenter Server 2.5.x installed with custom ports when vSphere client and VI Client 2.5 coexist on the same system
On a VirtualCenter Server 2.5.x system that has custom HTTPS port enabled, if you install VI Client 2.5.x, and later install vSphere Client , you might not be able to log back in to the VirtualCenter 2.5.x Server. The login might fail with an error message similar to the following:

Installation or upgrade of vCenter Server might fail with disk space error
During installation of vCenter Server, when you provide the amount of free space estimated by the installer, the installation might fail and display a Not enough disk space error message. As a result, you might have to rerun the installation.

Workaround: Provide at least 1GB of free space in addition to the amount recommended by the installer.

The vCenter Server installer cannot detect service ports if the services are not running
When you install vCenter Server and accept the default ports, if those ports are being used by services that are not running, the installer cannot validate the ports. The installation fails, and an error message might appear, depending on which port is in use.

This problem does not affect IIS services. IIS services are correctly validated, regardless of whether the services are running.

Workaround: Verify which ports are being used for services that are not running before beginning the installation, and avoid using those ports.

vCenter Server service might not start if vCenter Server is installed as a local system account on a local Microsoft SQL Server database with Integrated Windows NT Authentication
If you install an instance of vCenter Server as a local system account on a local SQL Server database with Integrated Windows NT Authentication and then add an Integrated Windows NT Authentication user to the local database server with the same default database as vCenter Server, vCenter Server might not start.

Workaround: Remove the Integrated Windows NT Authentication user from the local SQL database server. Alternatively, change the default database for the local system user account to the vCenter Server database for the SQL Server user account setup.

vCenter Server installer reports incorrect warning message during an installation or upgrade
During installation or upgrade, the vCenter Server installer reports a warning message to enable TCP/IP and named pipes for remote connections. This message is reported if you use a local SQL Server database and enter a server name other than (local) and "." when you create DSN.

Workaround: Ignore the warning and click OK to continue the installation or upgrade.

vCenter Server installation on Windows Server 2008 with a remote SQL Server database fails in some circumstances
If you install vCenter Server on Windows Server 2008, by using a remote SQL Server database with Windows authentication for SQL Server, and a domain user for the DSN that is different from the vCenter Server system login, the installation does not proceed, and the installer displays the following error message:

25003.Setup failed to create the vCenter repository

Workaround: In these circumstances, use the same login credentials for vCenter Server and for the SQL Server DSN.

vCenter Server installation fails on Windows Server 2008 when using a non-system user account
When you specify a non-system user during installation, vCenter Server installation fails with the following error message:

Failure to create vCenter repository

Workaround: On the system where vCenter Server is being installed, turn off the User Account Control option under Control Panel > User Accounts before you install vCenter Server. Specify the non-system user during vCenter Server installation.

Workaround: Navigate to the installation directory and delete the Virtual Infrastructure Client directory.

vSphere Client 4.0 download times out with an error message when you connect VI Client 2.0.x on a Windows 2003 machine to vCenter Server or an ESX/ESXi host
If you connect a VI Client 2.0.x instance to vCenter Server 4.0 or an ESX/ESXi 4.0 host, vSphere Client 4.0 is automatically downloaded onto the Windows machine where the VI Client resides. This operation relies on Internet Explorer to perform this download. By default, Internet Explorer on Windows 2003 systems blocks the download if the VI Client instance is VI Client 2.0.x.

Cannot reinstall or uninstall product after terminating the uninstallation of vSphere Client 4.0
If vSphere Client installation is interrupted, a subsequent installation or uninstallation of the vSphere Client 4.0 results in the following error message:

Cannot log in to VirtualCenter Server 2.5 after installing VI Client 2.0.x, 2.5, and vSphere Client 4.0, and then uninstalling VI Client 2.0.x on a Windows Vista system
After you uninstall the VI Client 2.0.x on a Windows Vista machine where VI Client 2.0.x, 2.5, and vSphere Client 4.0 coexist, you cannot log in to vCenter Server 2.5. Login fails with the following message:

Class not registered(Exception from HRESULT:0x80040154(REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG))

Workaround: Disable the User Account Control setting on the system where VI Client 2.0.x, 2.5, and vSphere Client 4.0 coexist, or uninstall and reinstall VI Client 2.5.

If SQL Native Client is already installed, you cannot install vCenter with the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express database
When you are installing vCenter with the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express database, if SQL Native Client is already installed, the installation fails with the following error message:

An Installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation using a valid copy of the installation package sqlcli.msi.

Workaround: Uninstall SQL Native Client if it is not used by another application. Then, install vCenter with the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express database.

A minimum of 650MB of free space on the boot drive is required to install vCenter Server
Although vCenter Server itself does not need to be installed on the boot drive, some required components must be installed on the boot drive. 650MB of free space is required at installation time to accommodate these required components as well as temporary files used during the installation.

Workaround: Ensure that you have at least 650MB of free space on the boot drive before installing vCenter Server.

vSphere Client installation might fail with Error 1603 if you do not have an active Internet connection
You can install the vSphere Client either from the vCenter Server media or by clicking a link on the ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server Welcome screen. The installer on the vCenter Server media (.iso file or .zip file) is self-contained, including a full .NET installer in addition to the vSphere Client installer. The installer called through the Welcome screen includes a vSphere Client installer that accesses the Web to get .NET installer components.

If you do not have an Internet connection, the second vSphere Client installation method will fail with Error 1603 unless you already have .NET 3.0 SP1 installed on your system.

Workaround: Establish an Internet connection before attempting the download, install the vSphere Client from the vCenter Server media, or install .NET 3.0 SP1 before clicking the link on the Welcome screen.

Upgrade

After upgrading to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4, the VMware VirtualCenter Service might not start automatically *
When vCenter Server with IBM DB2 database is upgraded to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4, the VMware VirtualCenter Service might not start automatically after the upgrade.
Message similar to the following are recorded in the vpxd.log file:

Workaround: Delete the data in the VPX_SESSIONLOCK table of the database and start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.

Clicking the agent pre-upgrade check link on the vCenter Server installation autorun window results in an error
The agent pre-upgrade needs to connect to the vCenter Server database in order to scan the required hosts, and needs the vCenter SSL certificate files for the connection. If the files are not found in their default location, the following error message might be displayed:

Failed to load config files

Workaround: Run the agent pre-upgrade check tool on a machine where vCenter Server is installed.

After upgrading vCenter Server to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4, an ESX/ESXi host in a cluster that was powered off before the upgrade does not reconnect automatically when powered on

Workaround: Reconnect the ESX host manually.

Guided Consolidation Service fails to start after an upgrade
After you upgrade Guided Consolidation Service, accessing it might fail with an error message similar to the following:

The server [server name] could not interpret clients request(the remote server returned error: (404) Not found

Clicking OK for this message might display the following error message:

After upgrading to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4 the setting for the Maximum Number of Database Connections to a vCenter Server is reset to 10
vCenter Server creates a maximum of 10 simultaneous database connections by default. If you change this value in vCenter Server 4.0 by editing the Maximum Number of Database Connections to be Created database setting and then perform the upgrade to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4, the upgrade resets the setting to 10.

Workaround: After the upgrade, change the Maximum number of Database Connections Created value as required.

The vSphere Host Update Utility reports an error after attempting to upgrade an ESX host after the initial upgrade fails
If you try to upgrade a host by using the Retry option after the initial upgrade fails, the vSphere Host Update Utility might report the following error:

Upgrade Agent Error:1

Workaround: Close and restart the vSphere Host Update Utility. Then run the host upgrade.

When you are logging in to vCenter Server, the vSphere Client might display the error message The request failed due to an SSL error. Clicking OK for this message might display the error message The server could not interpret the client's request. Login might succeed if you click OK for this error message.

After you log in to vCenter Server, the Hardware Status and Storage Views tabs for the ESX host might appear interchanged.

Workaround: None. These issues do not occur if you upgrade all components, including VUM and Converter.

The vCenter Server system's Database Upgrade wizard might overestimate the disk space requirement during an upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.x to vCenter Server
During the upgrade of VirtualCenter 2.0.x to vCenter Server, the Database Upgrade wizard might show an incorrect value in the database disk space estimation. The estimation shown is typically higher than the actual space required.

Workaround: None.

Incompatible legacy plug-ins appear as enabled in the vSphere Plug-in Manager after upgrading to vCenter Server
If you have VirtualCenter 2.5 installed with VMware Update Manager 1.0 or VMware Converter Enterprise for VirtualCenter 2.5, and you upgrade to vCenter Server, the legacy plug-ins appear as installed and enabled in the vSphere Client Plug-in Manager. However, earlier versions of the plug-in modules are not compatible with vCenter Server. In such cases, the plug-ins might be available, but are not functional.

If vSphere Host Update Utility loses its network connection to the ESX host, the host upgrade might not work
If you use vSphere Host Update Utility to perform an ESX/ESXi host upgrade and the utility loses its network connection to the host, the host might not be completely upgraded. When this happens, the utility might stop, or you might see the following error message:

Failed to run compatibility check on the host.

Workaround: Close the utility, fix the network connection, restart the utility, and rerun the upgrade.

When you use vSphere Host Update Utility to perform an ESX host upgrade, the upgrade might failWhen you use vSphere Host Update Utility to perform an ESX upgrade, the upgrade might fail with the following error:

An error occurred during upgrade. Connection with upgrade agent has been lost.

This happens when the upgrade is 26 percent complete. In the service console, the process halts while Stopping VMware ESX server Management services is displayed.

Workaround: Reboot the ESX host manually by pressing the reset button. The ESX upgrade continues and completes successfully, but vSphere Host Update Utility does not display the progress. To view the current host status from vSphere Host Update Utility, click Retry.

The Next run time value for some scheduled tasks is not preserved after you upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.2.x to vCenter Server
If you upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.2.x to vCenter Server, the Next run time value for some scheduled tasks might not be preserved and the tasks might run unexpectedly. For example, if a task is scheduled to run at 10:00 am every day, it might run at 11:30 am after the upgrade.

This problem occurs because of differences in the way that VirtualCenter 2.0.2.x and vCenter Server calculate the next run time. You see this behavior only when the following conditions exist:

You have scheduled tasks, for which you edited the run time after the tasks were initially scheduled so that they now have a different Next run time.

The newly scheduled Next run time has not yet occurred.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Wait for the tasks to run at their scheduled Next run time before upgrading.

After you upgrade from vCenter 2.0.x to vCenter Server, edit and save the scheduled task. This process recalculates the Next run time of the task to its correct value.

Opening performance charts after an upgrade results in an error message
After you perform an upgrade using the Microsoft SQL Express edition database, the vSphere Client displays the error message Perf Charts service experienced an internal error when you open performance charts. This happens because the installer does not restart the database service after making changes in the database settings.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Stop the VMware VirtualCenter Server service in Windows.

Restart the database service.

Start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.

Open a new vSphere Client instance and log in to vCenter Server.

vCenter Server database upgrade fails for Oracle 10gR2 database with certain user privileges
If you upgrade VirtualCenter Server 2.x to vCenter Server and you have connect, create view, create any sequence, create any table, and execute on dbms_lock privileges on the database (Oracle 10gR2), the database upgrade fails. The VCDatabaseUpgrade.log file shows following error:

Workaround: As database administrator, enlarge the user tablespace or grant the unlimited tablespace privilege to the user who performs the upgrade.

Licensing

A host with a single server license that fails to be added to vCenter Server is not given the option to correct licensing during a subsequent add host operation
When an ESX or ESXi host configured with a single server license is added to a licensed vCenter Server, vCenter Server displays an error message explaining that the host cannot be added.

Workaround: Remove the disconnected host, and add it again with a non-single server license.

Virtual machines cannot power on if certain licenses are installed during a scripted or interactive installation
If you do not have the correct license serial numbers for your hardware, when you install ESX/ESXi, you might encounter a licensing error. This problem is seen because the vendor and resource check validation of license keys is not performed during the installation. After a license is validated with lib/licensecheck, a subsequent test is needed to check that the system installed is within the limits imposed by the license. However, the installer does not perform this second check.

Workaround: Switch to evaluation mode, and then get the appropriate license from the portal.

Purchased add-on licenses are not displayed in the License list on the vSphere Client Licensing page
When you view your purchased licenses on the vSphere Client Licensing page, a separate product line item for add-on editions is not displayed. For example, if you purchased a vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Standard with vMotion license, or a vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Standard with vMotion and Data Recovery license, only the vSphere 4.0 Update 1 Standard license appears.

Workaround: To view the product features and add-on features for a license key, perform the following steps:

On the vSphere Home page, click Licensing.

In the upper-right corner, click Manage vSphere Licenses to launch the License wizard.

Click Next to go to the Assign Licenses page.

Move your cursor over the host license key to see the available product and add-on features.

Networking

Compliance check returns a failure message for a compliant host profileIn the Edit host profile pane of the vSphere Client, the physical network adapters for a given vSwitch (for example, vSwitch0) under Networking Configuration > vSwitch are configured to choose physical NICs based on minimum bandwidth of the NICs in Mbps. The compliance check of a host against this host profile returns failure messages as below, even though there are physical network adapters on the host with that minimum bandwidth.

The compliance check fails because it attempts to find physical network adapters whose speed is greater than the value specified for the minimum bandwidth of the NIC.

Workaround: For Minimum bandwidth of the NIC in Mbps, specify a lower value than the speed of physical NICs on the host. For example, you can change the value to 999 instead of 1000 to choose physical network adapters whose speed is 1000Mbps or more.

The VmwVmNetNum of VM-INFO MIB is displayed as Ethernet0 when running snmpwalk
When snmpwalk is run for VM-INFO MIB on an ESX/ESXi host, the VmwVmNetNum of VM-INFO MIB is displayed as Ethernet0 instead of Network Adapter1 while the MOB URL in the VmwVmNetNum of VM-INFO description is displayed as Network Adapter1.

Workaround: None.

Removing an ESX/ESXi host configured with a vDS from a vCenter Server system results in inconsistent networking state on the host
If you remove an ESX/ESXi host configured with a vDS from a vCenter Server system, the host cannot reconnect to the vDS. When you add the host back to the vCenter Server system, a warning similar to the following appears:

The distributed Virtual Switch corresponding to the proxy switches d5 6e 22 50 dd f2 94 7b-a6 1f b2 c2 e6 aa 0f bf on the host does not exist in vCenter or does not contain the host.

The virtual machines continue to function on their respective ports, but new virtual machines are not allowed to power on. You cannot modify the vDS settings for this host by using a vSphere Client connected to the vCenter Server system.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Use a vSphere Client to connect directly to the ESX/ESXi host. This workaround requires a direct connection.

Migrate the virtual machines off of the invalid vDS ports one by one by editing the settings of each virtual machine. This will result in prolonged network interruption to the virtual machines.

In a vSphere Client connected to the vCenter Server system, refresh the network settings of the host. The errors are cleared.

Add the host back to the vDS, either manually or by using a host profile.

Migrate the virtual machines back to their respective ports or port groups on the vDS by right-clicking the vDS and selecting Migrate Virtual Machine Networking. This process also results in network interruption to the virtual machines.

Storage

vCenter Server fails to open RDM after the RDM’s LUN number changes
VMware does not support LUN number (position) changes within the target. When the LUN number changes, vCenter Server fails to open the RDM that is built on that LUN. A raw device mapping file (RDM) resides on the VMFS datastore and points to a LUN. The LUN number shows the position of the LUN within the target. When this number (or position) changes, the vml identifier (vml_ID) for the RDM file also changes. For example, you can’t disconnect VMFS datastores and reconnect them in a different order. This changes the identification of the LUN so that it is no longer accessible, and vCenter Server prevents the virtual machine from powering on. vSphere Client uses the vml_ID for backward compatibility.

Workaround: Remove the RDM and re-create it. This generates a new vml_ID that the LUN can recognize.

If ESX/ESXi hosts fail or reboot during Storage vMotion, the operation might fail and virtual machines might become orphaned
If hosts fail or reboot during Storage vMotion, the vMotion operation might fail. The destination virtual machine's virtual disks might show up as orphaned in the vSphere inventory after the host reboots. Typically, the virtual machine's state is preserved before the host shuts down.

If the virtual machine does not show up in an orphaned state, verify if the destination VMDK files exist.

Workaround: You can manually delete the orphaned destination virtual machine from the vSphere inventory. Locate and delete any remaining orphaned destination disks if they exist on the datastore.

Using Storage vMotion to relocate a virtual machine back to its source volume might result in an insufficient disk space error
When you use Storage vMotion to move a virtual machine to another datastore and then back to its source volume, the vSphere Client does not immediately refresh the size of the source datastore, resulting in an error.

Workaround: Refresh the datastore in the vSphere Client. If the reported size of the datastore does not change after one attempt, wait for 30 minutes and refresh again.

Storage vMotion of NFS volume might be overridden by NFS server disk format
When you use Storage vMotion to migrate a virtual disk to an NFS volume or perform other virtual machine provisioning that involves NFS volumes, the disk format is determined by the NFS server where the destination NFS volume resides. This overrides any selection made in the Disk Format menu.

Workaround: None.

Storage vMotion does not support source RDM conversion to target NFS volumes
Disk-only Storage vMotion fails for virtual mode RDMs when you convert the disks to flat/sparse format on NFS volumes.

Workaround: Perform the following steps to migrate virtual mode RDMs to NFS volumes:

Use Storage vMotion to convert an RDM virtual machine disk to disk type flat/sparse using intermediate an SAN, local, or iSCSI volume.

Use Storage vMotion to relocate the converted disks from the SAN, local, or iSCSI volume to an NFS volume.

Backup

Reverting to snapshot might not work if you cold migrate a virtual machine with a snapshot from an ESX/ESXi 3.5 host to an ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1 host
You can cold migrate a virtual machine with snapshots from an ESX/ESXi 3.5 host to ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1 host. However, reverting to a snapshot after migration might not work.

Workaround: None.

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is not supported with Fault Tolerance
A VCB backup performed on an FT-enabled virtual machine powers off both the primary and the secondary virtual machines and might render the virtual machines unusable.

Workaround: None.

Server Configuration

Host profiles that set the physical NIC configuration to auto-negotiate cannot be applied on hosts that don't support auto-negotiation
In a host profile, if the physical NIC is configured to auto-negotiate, and you apply this profile to a host that does not support auto-negotiate, the operation might fail with a message similar to the following:

Error during the configuration of the host: Input/output error: Input/output error

Workaround: None

vSphere Client reports incorrect host profile compliance while using the Advanced configuration option
On the vSphere Client, if you edit the Advanced configuration option of a host profile and run a host compliance check against this profile, the compliance check might incorrectly report the host as compliant, when it is not. Further, when you apply the host profile to a host, the vSphere Client does not report the configuration changes that you make in Advanced configuration option> Advanced Option, which incorrectly implies that no changes can be applied to the host.

Workaround: There is no workaround to get the compliance check to correctly report noncompliance. However, you can apply the advanced option changes from the profile to the host by clicking Apply even if no configuration changes are reported in the UI.

SNMP PowerOn traps generated during vmware_hostd restart
When you restart vmware_hostd, only the Warm Start trap message should be generated by default. However, for all virtual machines running on your host, the PowerOn trap messages are also generated.

Workaround: None. You can ignore the PowerOn trap messages.

The health status of the ESX/ESXi host server components does not appear on the Hardware Status tab
If you change the HTTPS port number in the SFCB configuration file (sfcb.cfg) to a port other than the default and restart the SFCB (CIM) server, the health status of the ESX/ESXi host server components does not appear on the Hardware Status tab. This behavior is also seen if you log in directly to an ESX/ESXi host and click the Configuration tab to view the health status. Status information for the server components does not appear. This problem occurs because vCenter Server and the SFCB server are communicating on different ports.

Workaround: Make sure that the SFCB server communicates only through the default port.

vCenter service status and hardware status are not displayed after changing the vCenter Server system name
After you upgrade from vCenter Server 4.0 to vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4 or install vCenter Server 4.0 Update 4, if you change the system name for vCenter Server installation, the vCenter service status and hardware status might not be displayed.

Workaround: When you change the name of the system on which vCenter Server is installed, you should also change the system names at the following locations in vSphere Client:

Replace the new system name in the URL for the keys VirtualCenter.VimApiUrl and VirtualCenter.VimWebServicesUrl at Administration > vCenter Server Settings > Advanced Settings

vCenter, vSphere Client, and vSphere Web Access

Connecting vSphere Client 4.0 or 4.1 to a Linked Mode vCenter Server fails and results in an error message
If you combine three or more vCenter Servers of different versions, such as 4.0 update with 4.1, into a Linked Mode group, then connecting vSphere Client 4.0 or 4.1 to the vCenter Server might fail. The following error message appears in vSphere Client:

There are issues communicating with the following vCenter Server(s) xyz.servername.com: Failure to authenticate with the server

Workaround: Upgrade your vSphere Client to the latest version to connect to a vCenter Server system that is a part of the Linked Mode group to view and manage the inventories of all the vCenter Server systems that are linked.

Storage management service (SMS) does not work on vCenter Server installed with custom certificates
When you install vCenter Server with custom certificates, the following errors appear in the Storage Views tab of the virtual machine or the ESX host:

Storage service is not initialized. Please try again later
Connection to the vpxd service failed.

User credentials could not be authenticated

Work around the issue as follows:

1. Stop the VirtualCenter Server service
2. Remove the strings of letters before BEGIN CERTIFICATE and after END CERTIFICATE in rui.crt file located at: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL
3. Start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service followed by the VMware VirtualCenter Server Management Webservices service.

Note: After you start these services, the SMS and Storage views might take a few minutes to start working.

vCenter Server reports incorrect value of provisioned space on datastores
The vCenter Server reports incorrect value of provisioned space on a datastore if you refresh the datastore immediately after powering on or powering off a virtual machine.

Workaround: None

When editing the page size, vSphere Client Tasks and Events might show error messages
When you change the Tasks and Events Page size option from Edit > Client Settings > List in the vSphere Client connected to a vCenter Server running on the same system, the Tasks and Events page might show two error messages related to a non-initialized entity and an object reference not set issue. However, the page size is correctly set to the value that you specify. These errors are not displayed when the vSphere Client and the vCenter Server are running on different systems.

Workaround: None. You can ignore these error messages. Click OK to continue the tasks you are doing.

Discrepancies in the OverallStatus value of a virtual machine
vCenter Server retrieves the correct value for the OverallStatus property of a virtual machine, if you use the VirtualMachineSummary data object. However, if you check the OverallStatus by using the HostConnectInfo.VM.OverallStatus data object, vCenter Server returns a different value.

Workaround: Use the VirtualMachineSummary data object to get the OverallStatus property value of a virtual machine. You can ignore the value that is returned when the HostConnectInfo.VM.OverallStatus data object is used.

Host performance chart statistics are not printed
On the vSphere Client, when you print a chart from the Advanced page of the Performance tab, the chart statistics might not be printed.

vCenter Server alarm actions are triggered repeatedly even after the state of the alarm reverts to normal
Some vCenter Server event and state-based alarm actions are triggered repeatedly even after the alert status reverts to green (normal).

Workaround: Avoid setting any repeating actions for alarms triggered by the following alert-level transitions: from red to yellow, and from yellow to green.

Cannot change vSphere Client video card settings
On the vSphere Client, if you edit the virtual machine properties to increase the Maximum number of displays value of a video card, the setting reverts to the default value of 1.

Workaround: To get basic support for multiple displays, you can add a setting to the .vmx file manually. For example, to emulate two monitors, add the setting svga.numDisplays="2" in the virtual machine's .vmx file.

vSphere Client exports performance data for only one of the selected performance metric
When exporting performance data for an ESX host, if you select more than one metric for the Stacked Graph (Per VM) chart option, the resulting .xls file reports data for only the first selected metric.

Storage Performance graphs in the Overview performance page are not displayed correctly
On the vSphere Client, the graph for Space used in GB (Top 10) at Datastores > Performance might not correctly display the statistics for the past month or year.

VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices (vws) fails to retrieve vCenter Service health status data
vCenter Server health status data might not be displayed after you install vCenter Server 4.0 on a machine that has a name beginning with vws. An error message similar to the following might be written to vws.log:

Workaround: Make sure that you install vCenter Server on a machine that has a name which does not begin with vws.

Searching for users and groups in a large environment when using Add Permissions wizard results in error or incomplete result
When you search for users and groups in the Add Permissions window, the search times out in large environments.

The problem is mitigated in vCenter Server 4.0 and later by grouping search attributes with their associated types.

Workaround: In the service console run the esxtop command and press n for network data. If you are using ESXi, run the command resxtop –server <serverIP> from the vSphere CLI installed on Linux and press n for network data. Windows vSphere CLI does not support the command resxtop.

Custom ports are not detected when you log in to vCenter Server using remote DB2 database
While using a remote DB2 database with vCenter Server, if you customize the HTTPS and HTTP ports (443 and 80 respectively by default), the custom ports are not detected, and vCenter Server still continues to listen in default ports. As a result, logging in through vSphere Client fails with the following error:

vSphere Client could not connect with the vCenter Server [host name].
Details: A connection failure occurred (Unable to connect to the remote server)

You might be able to log in to vCenter Server by using localhost with the default port (443). After logging in, vCenter Health Status might display error messages similar to the following:

Web Access Service fails to start after vCenter install
VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices fails to start after installing vCenter. Error messages similar to the following might be written to the Tomcat service log at C:\VMware\Infrastructure\tomcat\logs:

Workaround: Click Start > Programs > VMware > VMware Tomcat > Configure Tomcat. In the window that appears, click Java, and in the text box for Java Virtual Machine, confirm that the path points to the location of the JRE installed during the installation of vCenter. Click Apply and then click OK. The Web Access Service starts successfully.

vCenter Service Status displays exception in locale detection error
When you log in to vCenter Server through vSphere Client and navigate to Administration > vCenter Service Status, the vCenter Service Status might display an Unexpected exception in locale detection, using default: [object Error]error message. Clicking OK for this message might result in a dialog box displaying the An error has occurred in the script on this page Internet Explorer script error. Clicking Yes in the dialog box results in a blank vCenter Service Status screen. If you right-click on the blank screen and select Refresh, vCenter Service status displays correctly.

Note: In some cases the Internet Explorer script error reappears even after you click Yes repeatedly, and the blank screen is not displayed. When this happens, stop the vSphere Client application in Task Manager, and log in again.

IE 7 and IE 8 browsers stop working if you click multiple times in the console area of a virtual machine
IE 7 and IE 8 browsers might stop working if you click multiple times in the console area of a virtual machine when you are logged in to vCenter Server using vSphere Web Access on Windows Server 2008 systems.

Workaround: Restart your browser.

Removing a virtual machine's virtual switch that is being used might result in an error messageIf you try to remove a virtual switch that a powered-on virtual machine is using, an error message appears. The warning message should alert you that the virtual switch is in use and cannot be removed. Removing virtual switches in such cases might cause the virtual machine to become unusable.

vSphere Web Access displays incorrect virtual machine CPU speed after the number of virtual processors is increased
In vSphere Web Access, the Performance section of the Summary tab for a selected virtual machine displays incorrect information about CPU speed after the number of CPUs for the virtual machine has been increased. For example, if the number of CPUs for a virtual machine are increased from 1 CPU with a clock speed of 1.559Mhz to 2 CPUs, vSphere Web Access should display the number of CPUs and their clock speed as 2 x 1.559Mhz. However, the clock speed is incorrectly displayed as 3.117 (1.559 multiplied by 2).

Workaround: None.

Using special characters in virtual machine names during virtual machine creation results in an error when connected to vCenter Server with vSphere Web Access
When connected to vCenter Server with vSphere Web Access, using special characters, such as :"|\'{}[]-*^&@#!`~, in the virtual machine name during virtual machine creation triggers the following error:

RuntimeFault: A general system error occurred.

Workaround: None.

Virtual machine templates stored on shared storage become unavailable after Distributed Power Management (DPM) puts a host in standby mode or when a host is put in maintenance mode
The vSphere Client associates virtual machine templates with a specific host. If the host storing the virtual machine templates is put into standby mode by DPM or into maintenance mode, the templates appear disabled in the vSphere Client. This behavior occurs even if the templates are stored on shared storage.

Workaround: Disable DPM on the host that stores the virtual machine templates. When the host is in maintenance mode, use the Datastore browser on another host that is not in maintenance or standby mode and also has access to the datastore on which the templates are stored to find the virtual machine templates. Then you can provision virtual machines using those templates.

Disabled alarms for inventory objects are enabled if vCenter Server is restarted
If an alarm for an inventory object, such as a hosts, virtual machine, datastore, and so on, is disabled in vCenter Server and vCenter Server is restarted, the alarms are enabled after the vCenter Server restart is complete.

Workaround: Disable the alarms on the appropriate inventory objects when vCenter Server restarts.

For large vCenter Server inventories, when you open the vSphere Client in Linked Mode with the inventories of all vCenter Server systems fully expanded, the vSphere Client might be nonresponsive for several minutes
Fully expanded vSphere Client inventories are those with clusters and datacenters expanded. If you close the vSphere Client after fully expanding the inventories, the next time you open it, the expanded inventory view is loaded. As a result, the vSphere Client might become non responsive for several minutes, depending on the number of vCenter Server systems and the number of objects in each vCenter Server system's inventory. The vSphere Client starts responding after it loads all inventory objects.

Workaround: Do not to expand the nodes of every vCenter Server system in the inventory of a Linked Mode group. Collapse the nodes before you close the vSphere Client to avoid loading the expanded nodes at startup.

Multiple SSL warning messages appear when vCenter Server systems are joined in a Linked Mode group
If multiple vCenter Server systems are joined in a Linked Mode group and do not use SSL certificates for authentication, multiple SSL warnings might be displayed in the vSphere Client when you log in.

Workaround: Address each warning individually. Select the Always ignore this certificate option on each host. You must configure vCenter Servers to use SSL certificates.

vSphere Client displays inaccurate information in the General section of the Summary tab for hosts
Under heavy load, the right-hand panel in the vSphere Client might fail to refresh and displays an inaccurate information in the General section.

Workaround: Refresh the vSphere Client manually by selecting a different host, and then selecting the first host again.

Guided Consolidation cannot import systems that are running vCenter Converter
Guided Consolidation import operations encounter a problem when the source system (the imported system) is running vCenter Converter. Guided Consolidation imports the system and attempts to uninstall vCenter Converter from the source system. The import operation succeeds but the following error is displayed when Guided Consolidation attempts to uninstall vCenter Converter:

VMware Converter Agent Install failed.

Workaround: Uninstall vCenter Converter from source systems before attempting to import them using Guided Consolidation.

The vSphere Client Roles menu does not display role assignments for all vCenter Server systems in a Linked Mode groupWhen you create a role on a remote vCenter Server system in a Linked Mode group, the changes you make are propagated to all other vCenter Server systems in the group.
However, the role appears as assigned only on the systems that have permissions associated with the role. If you remove a role, the operation only checks the status
of the role on the currently selected vCenter Server system. However, it removes the role from all vCenter Server systems in the Linked Mode group without issuing a warning that the role might be in use on the other servers.

Workaround: Before you delete a role from vCenter Server system, ensure that the role is not being used across other vCenter Server systems. To see if a role is in use, go to the Roles view and use the navigation bar to select each vCenter Server system in the group. The role's usage is displayed for the selected vCenter Server system.

Networking problems and errors might occur when analyzing machines with VMware Guided Consolidation
When a large number of machines are under analysis for Guided Consolidation, the vCenter Collector Provider Services component of Guided Consolidation might be mistaken for a virus or worm by the operating system on which the Guided Consolidation functionality is installed. This occurs when the analysis operation encounters a large number of machines that have invalid IP addresses or name resolution issues. As a result, a bottleneck occurs in the network and error messages appear.

Workaround: Do not add machines for analysis if they are unreachable. If you add machines by name, make sure the NetBIOS name is resolvable and reachable. If you add machines by IP address, make sure the IP address is static.

You cannot re-display the toolbar in the Reports view of the Storage Views tab after you hide it
The Reports view of the Storage Views tab has a toolbar that contains an object filter menu and a search field. These controls enable you to filter the reports tables based on object type, storage attributes, and keywords. If you hide the toolbar by selecting Hide from the toolbar's right-click menu, there is no mechanism to re-display it.

Workaround: Close and reopen the vSphere Client.

Starting or stopping the vctomcat Web service at the Windows command prompt might result in an error message
On Windows operating systems, if you use the net start and net stop commands to start and stop the vctomcat Web service, the following error message might appear:

The service is not responding to the control function.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2186.

Workaround: You can ignore this error message. If you want to stop the error message from occurring, modify the registry to increase the default timeout value for the service control manager (SCM).
For more information, see the following Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922918.

vCenter Server allows addition of the same ESX/ESXi system twice with two different IPv6 addresses
If you add an ESX/ESXi system to the vCenter inventory, and if that system is already managed by vCenter under a different IP address, the vCenter Server does not detect the problem.
The ESX/ESXi system appears in the inventory with a new IP address, with status disconnected. Connections to the ESX/ESXi system that use the old IP address remain active.

Workaround: Do not add the same ESX/ESXi system twice.

If a system has virtual network adapter, Guided Consolidation might compute a larger number of NICs for that system than the number of physical NICs
The number of NICs for a system computed by Guided Consolidation can be larger than the number of physical NICs for the system if the system has virtual network adapters. In this case, you might get the following warning during the Plan Consolidation phase: "Host does not have the desired number of VM networks. A consolidation will result in the mapping of multiple networks of the physical computer to a single VM network." This happens for any machine with virtual NICs (for example, for any virtual machine and any (physical or virtual) machine running VMware Workstation or other hosted virtualization platform).

Workaround: No workaround needed. You can ignore the warning.

Error message appears if you add a second virtual disk to a virtual machine
Suppose you create a virtual machine with default options by using Web Access connected to ESX/ESXi 4.0. If you then connect from vSphere Web Access to the vCenter Server that manages the ESX/ESXi host and add a second virtual disk to the same virtual machine with the option Create a New Virtual Disk, the error The specified file already exists on the server appears.

Workaround: Use the vSphere Client to connect to vCenter Server and add a second virtual disk to the virtual machine.

Adapter Type drop-down menu missing vmxnet3 option on virtual machine running SUSE Enterprise Linux
A virtual machine running SLES 10 or SLES 11 for which SLES is selected as the guest operating system type does not include vmxnet3 in the Adapter Type drop-down menu. The problem is most likely to occur in virtual machines that are migrated from ESX Server 3.x to ESX 4.x, but it might also occur in other circumstances.

Workaround: The vmxnet3 option becomes available if you change the guest operating system type from SLES to SLES10 or SLES11.

Power off the virtual machine.

Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

In the Options tab, click General Options.

In the version field, select either SLES10 or SLES11.

The vSphere Client does not update sensors that are associated with physical events
The vSphere Client does not always update sensor status. Some events can trigger an update, such as a bad power supply or the removal of a redundant disk. Other events, such as chassis intrusion and fan removal, might not trigger an update to the sensor status.

Workaround: None.

The vSphere Client might take longer than expected to display newly installed extensions in the list of installed extensions
After the installation of extensions is finished, 30-60 seconds pass before newly installed extensions appear in the list of installed extensions.

Workaround: Restart the vSphere Client.

Restarting mgmt-vmware does not restart VMware Web Access
When you restart the mgmt-vmware service, the VMware Web Access service does not restart. Instead, the service stops after a while and you cannot use VMWare Web Access to connect to the ESX host.

Workaround: Start the VMware Web Access service manually. Do this by running the following command in the ESX service console: service vmware-webAccess start

Web Access service does not start after finishing ESX installation
When you use Web Access to connect to an ESX host, the following message appears:

503 Service Unavailable

The reason is that after you finish installing ESX, the Web Access service does not start automatically.

Workaround: To start the Web Access service on the ESX host, run the following command: service vmware-webAccess start

Joining a Linked mode group after installation is unsuccessful if UAC is enabled on Windows Server 2008
When User Account Control (UAC) is enabled on Windows Server 2008 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems and you try to join a machine to a Linked Mode group on a system that is
already running vCenter Server, the link completes without any errors, but it is unsuccessful. Only one vCenter Server appears in the inventory list.

Workaround: Complete the following procedures:

After installation, perform the following steps to turn off UAC before joining a Linked Mode group:

Select User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer and click OK.

Reboot the machine when prompted.

Joining two vCenter Server instances fails with an error message in status.txt about failure to remove VMwareVCMSDS
Joining an existing standalone vCenter Server instance to a Linked Mode group causes the vCenter Server installer to fail. When this happens, vCenter Server does not start on the machine where you are performing the installation. Also, messages indicating problems with LDAP connectivity or the LDAP service being unreachable are written to the <TEMP>/status.txt file, where <TEMP> is the temporary directory defined on your Windows system. To diagnose this problem, open the status.txt file and look for the following message:

[2009-03-06 21:44:55 SEVERE] Operation "Join instance VMwareVCMSDS" failed: : Action: Join Instance
Action: Removal of standalone instance
Action: Remove Instance
Problem: Removal of instance VMwareVCMSDS failed: The removal wizard was not able to remove all of the components. To complete removal, run "Adamuninstall.exe /i:<instance>" after resolving the following error:

Folder '<vCenter Server installation directory>\VMwareVCMSDS' could not be deleted.
The directory is not empty.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

From a command prompt with administrator-level privileges, change directories to the vCenter Server installation directory.

Delete the VMwareVCMSDS directory.

Recover the local LDAP instance by typing jointool.bat recover.

Virtual Machine Management

VmBeingClonedEvent is not generated when a virtual machine is cloned inside a vApp
If you clone a virtual machine outside the vApp, then events are generated in the vSphere Client, and the VmBeingClonedEvent record is written to the vpxd log.

Workaround: None

The Installation Boot options for a virtual machine are not exported to OVF
When you create an OVF package from a virtual machine that has the Installation Boot option enabled, this option is ignored during export. As a result, the OVF descriptor is missing the InstallSection element, which provides information about the installation process. When you deploy an OVF package, the InstallSection element is parsed correctly.

Workaround: After exporting the virtual machine to OVF, manually create the InstallSection parameters in the OVF descriptor. If a manifest (.mf) file is present, you must regenerate it after you modify the OVF descriptor.
Example: <InstallSection ovf:initialBootStopDelay="300">
<Info>Specifies that an install boot is needed.</Info>
</InstallSection>
The inclusion of the InstallSection parameters in the descriptor informs the deployment process that an install boot is required to complete deployment. The ovf:initialBootStopDelay attribute specifies the boot delay.See the OVF specification for details.

An IDE hard disk added to a hardware version 7 virtual machine is defined as Hard Disk 1 even if a SCSI hard disk is already present
If you have a hardware version 7 virtual machine with a SCSI disk already attached as Hard Disk 1 and you add an IDE disk, the virtual machine alters the disk numbering. The IDE disk is defined as Hard Disk 1 and the SCSI disk is changed to Hard Disk 2.

Workaround: None. However, if you decide to delete one of the disks, do not rely exclusively on the disk number. Instead, verify the disk type to ensure that you are deleting the correct disk.

The vCenter Server fails when the delta disk depth of a linked virtual machine clone is greater than the supported depth of 32
If the delta disk depth of a linked virtual machine clone is greater than the supported depth of 32, the vCenter Server fails and the following error message appears:

Win32 exception: Stack overflow

In such instances, you cannot restart the vCenter Server unless you remove the virtual machine from the host or clean the vCenter Server database. Consider removing the virtual machine from the host rather than cleaning the vCenter Server database, because it is much safer.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

Log in to the vSphere Client on the host.

Navigate to the virtual machine clone in the inventory.

Right-click the virtual machine and choose Delete from Disk.

Restart the vCenter Server.

Note: After you restart the vCenter Server, if the virtual machine is listed in the vSphere Client inventory and the Remove from Inventory option is disabled in the virtual machine context menu, you must manually remove the virtual machine entry from the vCenter database.

Deployment of a non-persistent virtual machine by using CloneVM_Task fails
Deployment of a non-persistent virtual machine by using CloneVM_Task in vCenter Server might fail in VirtualCenter 2.5 and vCenter Server 4.0. For example, if virtual machine A has a non-persistent disk and is cloned to virtual machine B, and virtual machine B is cloned to virtual machine C, the cloning operation fails with a fault.CustomizationPending.summary error message. However, if virtual machine B is powered on before it is cloned to virtual machine C, the cloning operation is completed successfully. Further, when a virtual machine is powered on after the virtual machine is clone-customized, the guest customization cycle might run only once.
These symptoms occur when the virtual machine does not have VMware Tools installed, or is running an older version of VMware Tools.

Add a new key or modify the existing key guestcust.always-use-vmount and set its value to true.
This enables deployment of non-persistent virtual machines in a chain and allows the guest customization cycle to run every time that virtual machines with nonpersistent disks are powered on.

Cannot connect to the client CD/DVD drive by using Passthrough IDE mode
In the vSphere Client, connecting to the client CD/DVD drive as a non-administrative user by using Passthrough IDE mode might fail.

Workaround: Log in as administrator.

vMotion and Storage vMotion

Migrating a powered-off or suspended ESX 3.x virtual machine with snapshots to another datastore might make the target virtual machine unusable
When you attempt to migrate a powered-off or suspended ESX 3.x virtual machine with snapshots to another datastore, you might see the following warning message:

This virtual machine has snapshots enabled. Under certain conditions, some virtual disk files might not copy automatically to the target datastore. You will be unable to power on this virtual machine until the remaining virtual disk files are copied manually from the source datastore. To learn more, search the VMware Knowledge Base for "migrating 3.x snapshots.

After you complete the migration of the virtual machine, you might see the following error message when you attempt to power on the virtual machine:

Virtual machines might fail to vMotion between ESX 3.5 Hosts that are at different patch levels
When ESX 3.5 Hosts at different patch levels are managed by vCenter Server 4.0, the virtual machines on ESX 3.5 hosts might fail to migrate to other ESX 3.5 hosts, due to legacy virtual machine VMX settings. An error similar to the following is displayed:
A general system error occurred: The product version of the destination host does not support one or more CPU features currently in use by the virtual machine. Such features from CPUID level 0x80000001 register 'ecx' are indicated with a '1' bit: 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:000x:xxx0:x01x

Type config.migrate.test.CpuCompatibleWithHost as the key with the value false, and click Add.

Click OK.

Upgrade vMotion of an ESX 2.5.5 virtual machine fails, if the target ESX host is on a DRS-enabled cluster
On vCenter Server 4.x, an Upgrade vMotion of an ESX 2.5.5 virtual machine to an ESX 4.x host that is on a DRS-enabled cluster might fail. An error message similar to the following might be displayed:

No host is compatible with the virtual machine

Workaround: Disable DRS on the cluster and then perform the Upgrade vMotion operation.

Storage vMotion conflicts with remote CD/DVD and floppy disk device connections
CD/DVD and floppy remote backup devices are not supported with Storage vMotion. However, when you perform Storage vMotion on a powered-on virtual machine hosted by ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, the toolbar icon for connecting and disconnecting CD/DVD and floppy devices remains enabled, allowing you to add these devices while Storage vMotion is in progress even though this might cause failures.

Workaround: Before initiating Storage vMotion, disconnect all remote CD/DVD and floppy devices attached to the virtual machine by clicking the CD/DVD and floppy device connect/disconnect icon.

Storage vMotion on ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts does not display correct disk type if disk type is changed during Storage vMotion
The Storage vMotion wizard presents an option to convert disk type (from thick to thin or from thin to thick) for virtual machines on any ESX/ESXi host version. After a disk is converted and Storage vMotion is complete, the disk type is not reflected properly for ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts. The vSphere Client still reflects the old disk type.

Workaround: Power off the virtual machine, un-register it, and then re-register it.

Reverting to a snapshot might fail after reconfiguring and relocating the virtual machine
If you reconfigure the properties of a virtual machine and move it to a different host after you have taken a snapshot of it, reverting to the snapshot of that virtual machine might fail.

Workaround: Avoid moving virtual machines with snapshots to hosts that are very different (for example, different version, different CPU type, etc.)

VMware HA and Fault Tolerance

vCenter Server reports timeout error after vMotion
After you migrate all virtual machines from an ESX host within a short interval (about 10 seconds of each other), the following error might be displayed in the Tasks & Events tab of the host.

VMware HA might report misleading timeout errors when powering on or failing over a host with many virtual machines
VMware HA timeout errors might appear a few minutes after powering on or migrating (using VMware HA) a host with many virtual machines (more than 70). This timeout error disappears when most of the virtual machines are powered on.

Workaround: These errors can be ignored.

Suspended virtual machines with independent nonpersistent disks do not failover on VMware HA hosts
If you have suspended or powered off virtual machines on a host that has VMware HA enabled and if the virtual machine disks are configured to be independent and nonpersistent, failover does not happen. Such disks are not migrated to another host if the host fails, is powered off, or is placed in Maintenance Mode.
Migrating these virtual machines is currently not supported on HA because the machines are not compatible with any other host in the cluster.

Workaround: Un register the virtual machine and register it on a compatible host.

Secondary virtual machine remains in inventory after Fault Tolerance has been turned off for primary virtual machine
In some rare cases, selecting Turn Off Fault Tolerance in the vSphere Client for a primary virtual machine succeeds but the associated secondary virtual machine object is left in the inventory. This occasionally happens when a failover operation has just occurred and the new secondary virtual machine has not yet been started. This does not cause any serious consequences because the files of the secondary virtual machine should have already been deleted.

Workaround: Manually delete the secondary virtual machine.

Trying to change the disk format of an FT-enabled virtual machine while migrating it across datastores results in a fault
If you attempt to change the disk format of a powered-off, FT-enabled virtual machine while migrating it across datastores, the vSphere Client displays an InvalidArgument error message indicating that the operation has failed. The correct behavior is for the vSphere Client to disable the option to change the disk format.

Workaround: When you relocate an FT-enabled virtual machine to another datastore, select the Same format as source as the default option.

Changing the system time on an ESX/ESXi host produces a VMware HA agent error
If you change the system time on an ESX/ESXi host, after a short time interval, the following HA agent error appears:

HA agent on <server> in <cluster> in <data center> has an error.

This error is displayed in both the event log and the host's Summary tab in the vSphere Client.

Workaround: Correct the host's system time and then restart vpxa by running the service vmware-vpxa restart command.

Configuring VMware High Availability (HA) on a heavily loaded system might result in an error message
If you are enabling HA on a host that is experiencing a heavy load from its guest virtual machines, HA configuration might be interrupted for the host and an error message is displayed:

HA Agent on the host failed

Workaround: Reconfigure HA for the host, preferably after reducing the load either by powering off virtual machines or by migrating them to another host in the cluster using vMotion.

Failover to VMware FT secondary virtual machine produces error message on host client
When VMware Fault Tolerance is failing over to a secondary virtual machine, if the host chosen for the secondary virtual machine has recently booted, the host client sees this attempt as failing and displays the following error message:

Login failed due to a bad username or password.

This error message is seen because the host has recently booted and it is possible that it has not yet received an SSL thumbprint from the vCenter Server. After the thumbprint is pushed out to the host, the failover succeeds. This condition is likely to occur only if all hosts in an FT-enabled cluster have failed, causing the host with the secondary virtual machine to be freshly booted.

Non responsive Secondary virtual machines or copies of virtual machines with possibly different names might remain in the host inventory if there is an interruption when turning on Fault Tolerance
If you have a virtual machine on which VMware HA is enabled and you turn on Fault Tolerance, a non responsive secondary virtual machine might be added to the cluster's inventory, or you might end up with multiple copies of the virtual machine with different names. This situation occurs if the destination ESX/ESXi host of the secondary virtual machine loses connectivity to its managing vCenter Server through a reboot, power loss, or disconnection from the network while the secondary copy is being created and might result in incomplete configuration settings on the secondary virtual machine.

Guest Operating System

Static IP settings are not applied to a RHEL 5.1 virtual machineIf you clone and customize a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 virtual machine on which VMware Tools is installed using Operating System Specific Packages (OSP) and apply static IP settings to the clone, the static IP settings might not be applied to the destination virtual machine. Instead, the destination virtual machine might get auto-configured through DHCP.

Workaround: This issue might occur due to the Kudzu service running on the RHEL guest operating system. If the Kudzu service starts on the destination virtual machine after customization, it detects the NIC as a newly added hardware and applies default DHCP settings to it and saves the static IP settings file ifcfg-ethx as ifcfg-ethx.bak. To resolve the issue, turn off Kudzu service on the source virtual machine prior to customization. Run the following command to turn off Kudzu: /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 kudzu off

SMP virtual machines with large amount of memory might start slowly
SMP virtual machines with large amounts of memory might boot slower than on native hardware. Degraded performance occurs only during the boot phase as the guest operating system zeroes memory. The issue is observed on, but might not be limited to, Windows Server 2003 64-bit guest operating systems.

Workaround: None.

VMware Guided Consolidation sub component fails when installed on a Windows Server 2008 64-bit virtual machine running on ESX/ESXi or Workstation hostsIf you install VMware Guided Consolidation on a Windows 64-bit operating system running in a virtual machine hosted by ESX 3.5/ESXi 3.5 with Update 3, Patch 9 or earlier,
the Guided Consolidation VMwareCollectorSubProcess.exe sub component might fail. Multiple processes running VMwareCollectorSubProcess.exe run for many hours.
All analysis appears to be stalled and remains stalled (the process IDs do not change). The symptoms reappear even after rebooting the system. Multiple error logs appear in the Event Viewer
attributed to VMwareCollectorSubProcess.exe. This problem also occurs on Workstation 5.5, but is fixed in Workstation 6.5.

Internationalization

VirtualCenter Server fails when upgrading from VirtualCenter 2.0.2 to vCenter 4.0 on a Japanese locale with SQL Server 2005
When you upgrade from VirtualCenter 2.0.2 to vCenter 4.0 on a Japanese locale with SQL Server 2005, VirtualCenter Server might fail.

Workaround: None

Miscellaneous

Stopping or restarting the vCenter Server service through the Windows Services Control MMC plug-in might lead to an error message
Under certain circumstances, the vCenter Server service might take longer than usual to start. Stopping and restarting the vCenter Server service through the Windows Services Control MMC plug-in might lead to the following error message:

Service failed to respond in a timely manner.

This message indicates that the time required to shut down or start up vCenter Server was more than the configured system-wide default timeout for starting or stopping the service.

Workaround: Refresh the Services Control screen after a few minutes, which should show that the service has been correctly stopped and restarted.

Diagnostic data from vCenter might be contained in file that cannot be decompressed
While extracting a .tgz file that contains diagnostic data from vCenter, a dialog lists files that cannot be extracted, as well as an error message: